If Vladimir Putin wins another presidential election, he would be in power until at least 2030.

Opinion polls inside Russia report an 80% approval rating for the 71-year-old, but Mr Putin faces the most serious set of challenges any leader has faced in more than three decades.

Here’s why…

The war in Ukraine has triggered the biggest confrontation
with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

In addition, Western
sanctions have delivered the biggest external shock to the
Russian economy in decades.

Then in June, Russia had to put a stop to an attempted mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Group.

Although Mr Putin presents the war inside Russia as a much broader struggle with the US, he is cast as a war criminal and a dictator by much of the West. 

Despite this, in the face of an election, support for Mr Putin is evident.

Yesterday, Dmitry
Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, said he has “no
doubt” Mr Putin will win the election. 

“He
will continue to be president,” he said during an appearance on student television channel, Institute for International Relations (MGIMO).

When asked what Russia would look like in a decade, Mr Peskov said: “It must be and will be stronger, wiser and
richer.”